"good" in damage reduction info

[talino7]

When looking a enemy info under damage reduction sometimes "good" is listed as an exception to that reduction . What does good refer too and how do i see if my weapon is good? Unless it refers to my alignment?

[SmallGespenst]

good aligned weapons, so something like "blessed weapon" will cut through

[Aradon]

A holy-enchanted weapon works, a +4 enhancement bonus works, and things like the 'Bless Weapon' spell or the Paladin's Divine Bond. Simply being wielded by a good-aligned creature is insufficient.

[seeker1]

So, it's all bloody counterintuitive.

But, as someone explained to me, armor or protection that says it is DR 5/evil protects from good aligned creatures. That I guess I didn't get. You would think it protects against evil ... but no ... see: Angelic Aspect. It's evilly blocking good. Make sense to you either?

On the other hand weapons that say they *overcome* DR 5/evil means the weapon is good-aligned, and if you attack an evil creature with DR 7, it will overcome 5 points of that damage reduction. You want those holy/good weapons to attack creatures who are NOT protected against good/holy, i.e. all the bloody demons.

Or that's how it is all supposed to work, anyway.

[Mindeveler]

Originally posted by seeker1:

Angelic Aspect

Yeah, spells and class feats like that never made sense to me either.
The fact that some holy warrior who trained specifically to fight evil in the end became resistant to all damage BUT evil is just bloody dumb.

[kirill-busidow]

Originally posted by Mindeveler:

Originally posted by seeker1:

Angelic Aspect

Yeah, spells and class feats like that never made sense to me either.
The fact that some holy warrior who trained specifically to fight evil in the end became resistant to all damage BUT evil is just bloody dumb.

Evil resistant to all damage but /Good

is ok for you?

But good being resistant to all damage but /Evil

is not ok for you?

[wendigo211]

Damage reduction is written in terms of what will bypass it. E.g. 5/adamantine means that, without adamantine weapons, if you attack for 10 points of damage you'll deal 5 points of damage (10-5). On the other hand, if you have an adamantine weapon and attack for 10 points of damage, you'll deal 10 points of damage.

It's the same deal with axiomatic DR. If an opponent has 10/evil DR, your damage will be reduced by 10 points of damage unless your weapon has the "evil" property. Most demons have cold-iron and good DR. Meaning to bypass DR your weapon has to be both good and cold-iron (e.g. Radiance has both of these properties). The Covenant of the Inheritor will make your weapons good, as will spells like Bless Weapon, Align Weapon, Crusader's Edge, Angelic Aspect, etc. Getting cold-iron weapons can be a bit more difficult although the Blacksmith vendor in camp/Drezen has masterwork versions for sale.

[kirill-busidow]

Originally posted by wendigo211:

Damage reduction is written in terms of what will bypass it. E.g. 5/adamantine means that, without adamantine weapons, if you attack for 10 points of damage you'll deal 5 points of damage (10-5). On the other hand, if you have an adamantine weapon and attack for 10 points of damage, you'll deal 10 points of damage.

It's the same deal with axiomatic DR. If an opponent has 10/evil DR, your damage will be reduced by 10 points of damage unless your weapon has the "evil" property. Most demons have cold-iron and good DR. Meaning to bypass DR your weapon has to be both good and cold-iron (e.g. Radiance has both of these properties). The Covenant of the Inheritor will make your weapons good, as will spells like Bless Weapon, Align Weapon, Crusader's Edge, Angelic Aspect, etc. Getting cold-iron weapons can be a bit more difficult although the Blacksmith vendor in camp/Drezen has masterwork versions for sale.

Covenant is a bit like cheating.

Makes DR non-existant.

It is like amulet that lets you fully bypass SR (if we compare to magic).

[seeker1]

Originally posted by wendigo211:

Most demons have cold-iron and good DR. Meaning to bypass DR your weapon has to be both good and cold-iron (e.g. Radiance has both of these properties).

Wow. This learning journey. See, I always thought it was either/or (i.e. it has to be one or the other to bypass), but apparently it's both/and. Sheesh.

Also, I also thought if they had cold iron immunity it was bypassed by magic of +1 or higher but not otherwise unless the weapon is cold iron. Now I'm betting maybe I'm wrong on that also.

Everything you wrote makes sense, BTW, but not why Angelic Aspect is coded to protect you FROM angels.

[wendigo211]

Originally posted by seeker1:

Also, I also thought if they had cold iron immunity it was bypassed by magic of +1 or higher but not otherwise unless the weapon is cold iron. Now I'm betting maybe I'm wrong on that also.

It works like that in 3.5 (IIRC +1=silver, +2=cold-iron, +3=mithral, +4=dark steel, +5=adamantine). I'm not sure if it works that way in PnP Pathfinder, but it doesn't work like that in the game.

[Gorwe]

Some of these DR feats / spells / etc make no sense. I was looking at a "Reformed Fiend" Rager and it has DR / Evil, believe it or not. Should be DR / Good. Similar to Angelic Aspect. Should just be DR / - (in short: universal, because it's far too easy to screw this formula)

I mean, I get it, but this whole DR / Alignment is simply stupid and has double meanings.

[seeker1]

There's also the several Unholy weapons you find, which I promptly sell as there's nothing they can damage.

Well, I dunno. Maybe if a bunch of good bounty hunter creatures start pursuing the Swarm.

[Mindeveler]

Originally posted by kirill-busidow:

Evil resistant to all damage but /Good

is ok for you?

But good being resistant to all damage but /Evil

is not ok for you?

It all depends on whether this evil creature is an expert.
If it's just a regular demon whose standard-for-its-race magical properties make it resistant to anything but holy weapons, then it makes sense.
If it's sort of "anti-paladin" demon, a general of demonic army who devoted his life to fighting forces of good, to learning spells/tricks/potions/whatever that would help him combat them more effectively, then /Good does not make sense in his case.

Same is for good.
It makes perfect sense for random people to be particularly vulnerable to some dark unholy powers.
It really doesn't make sense for a champion of light with all his divine shields and whatnot to still be vulnerable to them.

Basically, anti-good/anti-evil bonuses should apply to fodder while 2 experts from opposite alignments fighting each other should just cancel out each other's strengths.
IMO.

At the same time, characters like Ammon Jerro (NWN2) who is an evil warlock and yet fights forces of evil should still shine against any evil. They might have fewer tricks up their sleeve ('cause fighting X with X is harder than just using X's natural weaknesses against it) but those tricks will work in any situation.